A Breath of Hope
by Tyler Bourassa
“Magic is dead,” the old man moaned, cradling two halves of a broken staff to his chest. A spattering of purple droplets encircled him, glittering faintly in the dim light of his study, and he knelt at their centre, weeping carelessly as if alone.
“It is, thank the gods, and soon you will be too,” Nara said, handing Kel a pair of heavy iron shackles. “Bind the wizard and haul him to his feet.”
Kel hesitated, staring at the prisoner and fingering the cold metal in her hands. She’d never seen a wizard before, not in person, but she’d seen plenty of men. Cruel men, lying men, pretty men with more confidence than sense, and this man seemed no better or worse than any other. Bald with a long, ashen beard, his black skin lined and glistening with tears. If he were truly a wizard, then his power was gone, and all that remained was this whimpering shell.
“Go on, girl. Don’t be scared. If he tries anythin’, I’ve got somethin’ here that’ll settle him down quick,” Ebberhost rumbled, stroking the head of his massive war hammer.
“I’m not scared,” Kel muttered, moving closer to their quarry, careful not to step in any of the strange liquid surrounding him.
The wizard didn’t react as she approached, still clinging to his broken stick, so Kel bent down and grabbed one of the pieces, intending to take it, but as soon as her hands touched the smooth wood, a jolt of energy surged into her. Somehow both hot and cold at once, the power roared through her veins, igniting her blood with tingling pleasure.
“I could have taught you, child, had things been different,” the old man said, his soft voice drawing Kel back to the present with a shiver. Their eyes met, and his gaze held hers, sparkling and blue. The wizard’s eyes seemed to glimmer like sun-kissed waters. “You could have been one of us. One of the Chosen.”
“Me? A wizard?” Kel said, and the man nodded, almost smiling.
Darrin laughed and stepped up beside Kel, resting a hand on her shoulder. “Careful, love. Keep talking like that, and we might be coming after you next.”
Kel frowned, suddenly realizing where she was and what she’d said. “I’m nothing like him,” she hissed and brushed away Darrin’s hand, flashing him a glare before she ripped the broken staff out of the wizard’s grip. This time, there was no jolt of energy when she touched it, and she hurled both pieces to the floor, then snapped the shackles onto the prisoner’s wrists and dragged him to his feet.
The idea of being a wizard may have excited her back when she was just a foolish girl, lonely and neglected on her parent’s farm, but now she knew the truth. Men and women like this old mage were nothing more than tyrants, merely pretending to be kind. They used their magic to trick people into serving them while they lounged in their fancy towers, reaping the rewards earned from the blood and sweat of honest folk.
“Ignore the prisoner and his lies. It’s time for us to go,” Nara said.
“What about all this loot?” Ebberhost asked.
Nara frowned. “Leave it.”
The wizard’s study was small but richly furnished, containing more wealth in this single room than Kel had seen in her entire life. Tall bookshelves lined the walls, dusty and filled with leather-bound tomes, their spines inscribed in a spidery scrawl. A trio of marble tables were arranged evenly across the stone floor, each covered with vials, papers, mortars and pestles, and other arcane contraptions. Though Kel had no great fondness for gold or riches, even she was tempted by the glittering trinkets she spotted carelessly strewn upon the tables.
“C’mon now. I’d say we’ve each earned a little taste of it, eh? For our troubles? A wizard’s horde seems like a poor thing to waste,” Ebberhost said, reaching towards a golden candelabrum.
Kel felt the old man stiffen, but before Ebberhost could grab the candelabrum, Nara slapped his hand away.
“Don’t be a fool. Magic might be dead, but any one of these ‘treasures’ could melt off your skin. Lord Graven warned us to leave the wizard’s tower unspoiled. Who knows what dark enchantments may remain even after the Cleansing?”
“Right,” Ebberhost mumbled, wiping his hand on his pants. “I forgot.”
Nara nodded, gesturing at the open door. “Let’s be on our way then. There’s nothing left for us here.”
“There’s nothing left for us anywhere. No safety, no peace. You see, there are far worse things than me lurking in the shadowed corners of creation, and without the aegis of sorcery protecting us, our world is now defenceless to these horrors,” the wizard said, shaking his head.
“Maybe the horrors are already among us, old man. Maybe they aren’t so bad,” Darrin said, his thin lips twitching into a smile.
The others began to laugh as they left the room, disappearing down the twisting staircase to the main level of the tower. But Kel walked in silence, pushing the wizard ahead of her, the feel of his power still lingering in her veins.
Distant thunder rumbled in the cloudless sky. An ill-omen, or so Kel had been taught, though it was difficult to feel anything but joy on such a beautiful day. She rode her horse down a narrow dirt trail with the wizard seated in front of her, sharing her mount at Nara’s command. He rode well for an old man, still and quiet, smelling faintly of flowers and dust.
Darrin pulled his horse up beside hers, whistling a tuneless melody. For some reason, he loved to torment her, always poking and prodding until she lost her temper, so Kel clenched her jaw, waiting for his inevitable barb.
“Have there been any more sparks between the two of you?” Darrin finally asked, his brown eyes alight with laughter. “You know, if not for the age difference, you’d make quite a handsome couple.”
“Don’t be jealous,” Kel said.
“Oh, no jealousy from me, love. I’m just trying to look out for you. You’re lucky that Lord Graven didn’t hear the wizard’s comment about teaching you. I’ve seen people hanged for less.”
“Is your Lord so insecure that he fears the idle comments of his people? Only tyrants kill over an imagined crime, and history has shown that retribution is often swift and violent for such despots,” the wizard said.
“There won’t be any retribution, old man. Not for me or anyone else in the Purity Guard,” Ebberhost growled from the front of the column, turning around to glare at the prisoner. “Magic is dead. Remember? Slurped and swallowed like a good bottle of wine, and now it’s time for the strong to rule instead of the lucky. Why should a man like me bow to some scrawny wretch just because the gods saw fit to bless them with the gift of sorcery? Makes no damn sense. Things are right and proper now. All thanks to Lord Graven and our kindly Benefactors.”
The wizard sighed, plucking at his manacles. “Is that so? Well, it’s difficult for a man in chains to argue with his captors, yet I’ve never heard of your Lord or these ‘Benefactors’ you mentioned. How is it that they managed so great a feat as the destruction of magic with no magic of their own?”
Darrin snorted. “You never leave that crumbling tower of yours, or what?”
“It has been some time since I left my tower or the surrounding grove. Time moves differently for those of us who measure our lives in centuries, and the older I get, the less inclined I am to venture into cities.”
“They’re saviours from another world,” Kel said, remembering the first time she’d seen one of the Benefactors from afar. Robed and hooded, the strange figure hadn’t said a word, allowing Lord Graven to speak on their behalf, and though dozens of people had separated her from it, she’d felt a shiver of fear run down her spine when its unseen gaze had passed over her.
Ebberhost grunted, nodding his head. “They showed up a year or so ago, and right away they started offerin’ up knowledge and gifts far beyond anything you wizards deigned to share. They promised us a better life. A life where anyone could be great based on their own strength and not the mad whims of fate. All we had to do was get rid of the tyrants rulin’ us, which they were kind enough to help with too.”
“But how? And what do they get in return?” The wizard asked.
“They—,” Ebberhost began, but before he could finish, Nara rode up beside the prisoner and cuffed him in the mouth so hard that his head flew to the side, dripping blood.
“Enough! Stop wasting time talking to the dead. This wretch has nothing to say that we need to hear,” Nara snarled, and everyone nodded their hurried assent.
The group continued down the trail in silence, surrounded by pine trees and a few gnarled oaks. Towering mountains rose up in the distance, snow-capped and wreathed in twisting clouds, though Kel was blind to the beauty around her. She fidgeted in her saddle, staring at the back of the prisoner’s head. The Purity Guard had taught her that all wizards were evil, but there didn’t seem to be anything evil about this one. He was hurt and sad, with an air of kindness about him, and she doubted that she’d be nearly as calm or composed if she’d been stripped of her power and bound in chains, slowly riding to her death.
Of course, for most of her life, she’d never had any power. As a girl, Kel had been little more than a prisoner, locked away on her family’s farm. Her father had never let her work the plow or tend the animals like her brothers and sisters. He’d said that she was too pretty and that pretty girls mustn’t be wasted, claiming that one day she’d fetch a fine dowry if they were careful. So, she was brushed and painted but mostly ignored up until the day she’d flowered, and then she’d been sold to the first man willing to offer a bag of gold in exchange for her hand in marriage.
Yet Kel had refused to accept this fate, and on the eve of her wedding, she’d stolen her father’s fastest horse and most of his savings, escaping both him and the oafish man he’d sold her to. The night had embraced her like a long-lost daughter, and she’d embraced it. Intoxicated by the light of the moon and the stars and the kiss of the wind on her face, Kel had raced down the main road all the way to Haervalan, arriving there in the morning with her pockets filled with gold and her mind teeming with dreams of adventure.
The city was everything she’d expected and not at all what she’d hoped. Each man Kel had passed by seemed to take her beauty as an invitation to try and claim her, smiling as they whispered their pretty falsehoods, a fierce hunger burning in their eyes. The women had been no better; sharp-tongued and jealous, they’d belittled her as if cruelty were a game, lacking even the barest hint of sympathy.
Nara had found her that night, weeping behind a tavern while a smiling man ripped and tore at her clothes. She could remember steel flashing in the moonlight, and a moment later, the man fell to the ground, leaking blood, his hunger sated, his smile gone. For the first time in her life, Kel had realized that a girl could be more than just pretty. A girl could be strong, and when Nara asked her to join the Purity Guard the next morning, she’d eagerly accepted.
“Looks like we stumbled on a bit of fun. Let’s go check it out, eh?” Ebberhost grunted and flicked his horse’s reins, speeding up and forcing the rest of the party to hurry after him.
Kel dragged herself from her memories and peered down the trail, spotting a pair of travellers kneeling in the dirt, surrounded by what appeared to be three members of the Purity Guard. “Are those people wizards?”
“No, child. Neither of them possesses the spark. If I had to guess, I’d say they were Ildeni refugees, far from home and ill-treated by your brethren,” the wizard said.
“Of course they are, old man,” Darrin said, grinning. “Why else would the Purity Guard accost them if not to keep the roads safe from their vile sorcery?”
“The louder a group boasts of their own purity, the less I tend to trust them.”
Ebberhost halted in front of the other squad and dismounted, gesturing towards the Ildeni. The unknown Purity Guards seemed tense at first, but that quickly passed, and soon, they were all smiling and laughing with Ebberhost as if they were old friends.
As Kel drew closer to the group, she saw that one of the refugees was a man and one was a woman, though both were bruised and bloodied, with ripped clothes and red, teary eyes.
“I caught ‘em consorting with dark spirits,” one of the Purity Guards said, scratching at his chin with a blood-stained gauntlet. He was tall with pale skin and only a few wisps of hair on his head, and the other two seemed to defer to him, nodding along as he spoke. “Not one of the tyrants, so they ain’t worth hauling all the way back to Haervalan for a trial. Soon as we get a confession, I’m gonna string ‘em up on that tree there and watch ‘em dangle.”
“Let me try talking to them,” Darrin said, drawing two daggers from his belt. “I have a knack for coaxing the truth free from stubborn lips.”
“We are not wizard!” The Ildeni man shouted, placing himself between Darrin and the woman. “We from Ilden. We flee city after Purity Guard attack Chosen there. Great explosion. Hundreds dead. My wife, she is with baby. Pregnant, you see? We have no magic. No gold. Just people.” The man held out his hand as if pleading, his eyes hopeful, his mouth bloody. “No threat.”
“Worthless Ildeni slut,” Ebberhost snarled, pointing his war hammer at the woman. “I bet the child isn’t even his. Just look at her. A witch and a whore. We’d be doin’ the man a service by riddin’ him of that burden.”
The leader nodded. “Wise words, brother. You speak true.”
“No,” Kel gasped, riding up beside Nara and gripping her arm. “You can’t allow this. They aren’t wizards. They’re telling the truth.”
Nara turned to Kel, scowling. “Listen, girl, this isn’t some back alley in Haervalan. Things are different out here. Evil is all around us. Hidden in plain sight. It’s not my place to meddle in the affairs of another squad. You understand? There’s nothing I can do.”
The Ildeni man watched their exchange with wide, hopeful eyes. “We good? Can go?”
Ebberhost let his war hammer thud into the dirt, lumbering closer to the man, dragging his weapon behind him. “Not good. Can’t go.”
“No. I… good,” the man stammered, and his wife began to wail, eyes downcast, clinging to her husband with one hand and holding her stomach with the other.
Kel leapt down from her horse and strode towards the refugees, fumbling for her sword hilt, though she had no idea what she planned to do once she’d drawn it. All she knew was that she had to stop this, but before Kel could reach the Ildeni, Nara stepped in front of her.
“Don’t be a fool,” the woman hissed, knocking Kel’s hand from her weapon. “Just look away, and this will all be over soon.”
“Look away? This isn’t justice, Nara. It’s murder.”
“Are you willing to die for these people? You think they’d do the same for you? I—” Nara stopped whatever she’d been about to say and drew her sword, pushing past Kel. “Get back on that horse, old man, or by the gods, I’ll take one of your arms. My orders were to bring you in alive. Not unspoiled.”
Kel turned around and saw the wizard slowly walking toward the other Purity Guards, his manacled hands clenched into fists. Blood stained his face, giving him a ghastly appearance, and his clear, blue eyes were as cold and merciless as a winter storm.
“Violence is ever the coward’s solution,” he said, ignoring Nara and her threats. “Yet if it’s blood you crave, then take me as your victim and spare these two innocents. I am your infamous tyrant, after all. Take your vengeance upon me.”
The leader of the second squad stepped back, glancing at his men. “Ya, well, maybe you’re right.”
“Of course, I am,” the wizard said, his cadence hypnotic, seeming to weave an enchantment with only his voice. The space around him grew hot and stifling, like the air just before a storm, and a grinding pressure awoke in the back of Kel’s head, throbbing in time with her heart. “Release them. Come to me.”
Kel watched the wizard move as if in a dream. Her thoughts were sluggish, and her body numb. Magic was dead. She knew it was, yet somehow, a trickle of this man’s power remained, infecting her mind with fever.
“How’s this for vengeance?” Ebberhost roared, slamming the haft of his war hammer into the wizard’s chin and knocking him to the dirt.
The pressure in Kel’s head immediately vanished along with the warmth, and Ebberhost raised his weapon high into the air, snarling wordlessly.
“No,” Kel breathed, sprinting forward, desperate to stop Ebberhost from finishing his strike.
She grabbed his arm, trying to pull him backward, but he was so heavy that she could barely budge him. The giant Purity Guard cursed, spinning around, and something struck Kel in the mouth. The world tilted as she fell to the ground, reeling from the blow.
A woman began to scream, and then a man, their terror intermingling for one awful moment before silence fell. Kel moaned, blinking her eyes to bring them back into focus. Someone was laughing. The taste of blood filled her mouth. She spat a stream of crimson saliva into the dirt and pushed herself up, swaying slightly on her feet.
“What did you do? You bastard!”
“Calm down,” Nara said, placing her hand on Kel’s shoulder. “It’s over.”
Darrin stood above the two Ildeni, both his daggers dripping red. The man and the woman lay silent at his feet, their mangled forms clutching one another even in death. “I had no choice, love. They confessed to me. Both of them begged me to end their suffering, giving thanks as I purified them. We did those poor folk a kindness, you see? It’s no easy thing to be damned.”
“You should know,” Kel snapped, sickened by the actions of her brothers, though somehow Nara’s refusal to stop them seemed even worse.
She glanced down at the wizard and saw that he was bruised and unconscious but still breathing. Her mouth throbbed from the blow she’d suffered, and as she cleaned the blood from her lips, a sudden rage filled her. Kel drew her sword and thrust the tip against Ebberhost’s breastplate, grinding the sharp steel into his armour.
“Hit me again, and I’ll kill you. I swear it.”
Ebberhost smiled. “Things are different now. Best to remember that. Justice lies in the hands of the strong. Tell me, girl, are you strong or merely stupid?”
“Quit bickering. Both of you. What’s done is done. Kel, strap the prisoner onto your horse. This place has been purified. It’s time to move on,” Nara said.
Kel stood there with her sword raised, refusing to look away from Ebberhost’s laughing eyes. He was a monster and a fool, yet he’d face no justice. Not here. Not today. Finally, Kel turned from Ebberhost and sheathed her sword, wiping her hands on her cloak. Nara was right. It was time to move on.
Haervalan felt tense today, or at least more tense than usual. Throngs of people rushed up and down the city’s cobbled streets, and Kel stalked through them with a grimace, glaring at any fool who drew too close. Everyone she passed seemed to be talking about the explosion in Ilden, afraid that the same thing would happen here if the Purity Guard attacked the ancient tyrant living to the north.
Of course, the tyrant they feared had already been captured, and there’d been no great unveiling of destruction at his tower. If any magic remained in the artifacts stored there, he’d left it untapped, and now he was being marched through the streets towards his execution, bound and bloody and unnoticed by passersby.
“Keep a firm grip on the prisoner. The jail isn’t far,” Nara said.
Ebberhost grunted in answer, pushing the wizard along ahead of him as they moved into the city square.
Usually, there were dozens of shops here, selling anything from meat and fruit to freshly forged steel, but now all the shops were missing, and a strange machine had been set up in their stead. Spherical and wrought of iron, the device was taller than two people standing one atop the other, and a squad of grim-faced Purity Guards surrounded it, their hands stroking the hilts of their swords.
“Gods, what is that thing?” The wizard gasped, recoiling back a step. “It drains the very light from the air. The breath from my lungs. I can barely stand it.”
Ebberhost laughed. “They call it a Purifier, old man. It drinks up all the magic in the air for miles in every direction, keepin’ things fair for us regular folk. The Benefactors helped us build one in each major city on the continent, and now there’s nowhere left for your kind to hide.”
The exterior of the machine was flawless, with no grooves or indentations except for a single round opening carved into its eastern side. Thin whirring blades spun within it, emitting a droning buzz that thrummed in Kel’s ears. As she drew closer to the sphere, she was able to peer inside and found an orb of iridescent darkness nestled at its core, pulsing and writhing as if alive.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Darrin asked from beside her, a hint of awe entering his voice.
Kel flinched, turning away from the sphere and wrapping her arms around herself. “What is that blackness inside it?”
“It’s power, love. A reckoning. A turning of the tide.”
“It’s vile,” Kel muttered, hurrying forward, eager to move on.
They passed beyond the machine, leaving the city square behind them and entering the military district. The streets here were less busy, and the buildings were larger but lacking any signs or ornamentation. As they walked, Kel retreated further into herself, ignoring the droning chatter of her squadmates. Their constant mockery and veiled threats had worn thin, and she longed for the quiet solitude of her quarters.
“We’re here,” Nara said, halting in front of a squat stone building and gesturing for everyone else to do the same. An iron fence surrounded the structure, topped by sharp finials, with only a single gated entryway. Two Purity Guards stood sentry inside the gate, watching the newcomers with narrowed eyes.
“Those two better stop glarin’ at us before I take offence,” Ebberhost growled, spitting a wad of phlegm onto the street.
Darrin grinned, patting Ebberhost on the shoulder. “Easy, big man. Those boys are young and eager to prove their worth. Pay them no mind.”
“Their egos aren’t my problem. We busted our hides, draggin’ this old bastard all the way here from his tower. All I’m askin’ for is a little respect.”
“Just wait here, and don’t cause any trouble. I’ll go talk to them,” Nara said, then stalked away, heading towards the gate before Ebberhost could respond.
Ebberhost scowled but obeyed, watching from afar as Nara spoke to the guards, seeming to grow angrier by the moment. “I can’t hear a bloody thing.”
“Neither can I,” Darrin said.
“Then let’s get a little closer, eh? I’m not the type of guy who likes to watch,” Ebberhost said, handing Kel the prisoner’s chains. “Wait here, girl, and don’t let this old wretch out of your sight, or it’ll be you who hangs in his place. You understand?”
“Of course. I’m a Purity Guard the same as you,” Kel snapped, though even as she spoke the words, she knew they were a lie. She’d stopped being one of them the moment they’d killed those two refugees.
“We’ll see,” Ebberhost said, walking over to the gate with Darrin at his side.
Kel stared at their backs as they left, wondering what would happen if she fled. It seemed easy for one lone girl to disappear in a city the size of Haervalan, and if she made it outside the walls, they’d never find her. But Kel had no friends, no family, and nowhere to go. How long would she last alone in the wilds with only her sword and bruised honour to keep her warm?
“I sense your discontent, child. It is a seething, gnawing ache, setting your desires at odds with your will. But I can fix it. I can set you free.”
Kel spun around and glared at the wizard, stepping closer so they wouldn’t be overheard. “You know nothing about me.”
“I know that you’re not like the others, and I know that you feel trapped, stuck in a life where you don’t belong. But you’re not trapped. Not any more than I am. You see, I was wrong before. Magic isn’t dead. It’s merely hidden, locked away by those creatures you call Benefactors,” the wizard said, his excitement infectious, sending a shiver down Kel’s spine. “If you release me, then together we can destroy the machine suppressing magic and restore my power, then I can release you.”
“Are you crazy? The Purity Guard aren’t who I thought they were, but you’re still a wizard. A tyrant. How could I ever trust you?”
“You don’t believe those lies, child. You sense our connection, our shared destiny,” the wizard said, grabbing one of Kel’s hands and holding it in his. “I can teach you if you wish it. Power, knowledge, a place to belong… all of this would be yours as my apprentice, but first, you need to set me free.”
Kel inhaled sharply, pulling away her hand. This was the second time the wizard claimed that he could teach her, but such a thing seemed too incredible to be true. Magic belonged in stories, not in the hands of a broken girl who’d traded her freedom for a lie. Yet when Kel had touched the wizard’s broken staff back in the tower, a flood of power had consumed her, and never before had she felt so alive, so complete. She longed to feel that way again.
“I—”
“Let’s go. Talkin’ time is over,” Ebberhost said, stepping between Kel and the wizard and ripping the chains from her hands. “It seems Lord Graven is already here in the city and visitin’ this very jail as we speak. That’s why those lads were so hesitant about lettin’ us in at first until me and Darrin straightened them out. Word is you’re to be hanged at sunset, old man, and I can’t think of a finer end to the day.”
The wizard held Kel’s gaze for a moment, ignoring Ebberhost, his eyes twin pools of sapphire flame, seeming to will her to action, but then the moment passed, and he nodded, allowing the Purity Guard to drag him away.
“C’mon, Kel. The guys want to buy you a drink to show that there are no hard feelings. This was your first mission, after all, and it wasn’t an easy one. What do you say?” Nara asked.
Kel said nothing, unable to look away as Ebberhost shoved the wizard through the gate and into the prison. The gate slammed shut, and she flinched, nodding. It was too late to save him. The magic was gone.
Raucous laughter washed over Kel, and she grimaced, glancing around the room in disgust. The tavern was filled with a horde of foul-mouthed drunks, each swapping dull stories and drinking cheap ale. A fire burned in the hearth on the other side of the room, casting a wavering light that did little to illuminate the area, for which Kel was grateful. The shadows suited her dark mood.
Nara sat across from her, fiddling with an empty tankard while they waited for Ebberhost to return with fresh drinks. Darrin had run off nearly as soon as they’d arrived and cornered one of the young serving girls, coaxing her into his lap at an empty table.
Kel kept replaying her conversation with the wizard over in her mind, wondering what would have happened if she’d tried to free him. Death, most likely. Both hers and his, but still, her cowardice rankled. A chance at happiness was a rare thing, and rather than seizing it, she’d turned away, letting that chance slip through her fingers. Now, this nightmare was all that remained.
“He made you an offer.”
“What? Who did?” Kel asked, trying to keep the surprise from showing on her face.
Nara leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table. “The wizard. He wanted you to save him, didn’t he? No. Don’t bother denying it. I’m sure that he did, but you made the right choice. The smart choice. I’m proud of you.”
“How do you know? What’s right, I mean?”
“Simple. If it keeps you alive or puts gold in your pocket, then it’s right. There’s nothing else in this life that matters. Not the Purity Guard, not your father, and certainly not that lying wizard. Always look out for yourself, girl, because at the end of the day, you’re the only one that will.”
“But what if that’s not enough? What if I need more?”
Nara snorted a laugh. “There is nothing more. Not for people like us.”
“No. I don’t believe that. I can’t,” Kel muttered, shaking her head, tears burning in her eyes. She glanced at the exit, and without thinking about what she was doing, she rose to her feet, lurching towards it.
“Come back, you fool! I’m not chasing after you! If you leave, then you’re on your own!” Nara shouted, but Kel ignored her, pushing open the door and stumbling outside.
A cool wind brushed Kel’s face as she stepped into the waning daylight, and she shivered, fleeing down a shadowed backstreet. The alley ended abruptly, after only a few dozen paces, and Kel skidded to a halt, nearly slamming into the side of a building before she finally managed to stop. She gasped, breathing heavily, and leaned against the brick wall, weary, though she’d only run a short distance.
“Where are you going in such a hurry, love?” Darrin asked, his soft voice laced with menace. He stood a few steps back, blocking the exit to the alley, his hands resting on the hilts of his daggers.
Kel pushed herself off the wall, standing taller, forcing herself to calm her breathing. “Where I go is none of your concern, Darrin. Why are you following me?”
“Ebberhost and I are worried about you. You seem so troubled lately. So filled with doubt. We’ve been thinking that maybe, just maybe, your commitment to the Purity Guard has begun to waver.”
“That’s funny. I never think about either of you at all,” Kel snarled, glancing behind him. Part of her hoped to see Nara there, lurking in the distance with her sword drawn, ready to come to Kel’s aid once more, but instead, all she found were twisting shadows. “Leave me alone. It’s been a long day, and I have no patience for your stupid games.”
“This is no game. You swore an oath of loyalty to the Purity Guard, and I think it’s about time you proved that loyalty,” Darrin said, stalking closer to Kel, a hungry smile twisting his lips. “But don’t worry, love. A pretty girl like you should have no trouble convincing me.”
“I have nothing to prove. Not to you or to anyone else,” Kel said, pulling her sword from its sheath. “And I am not your love.”
Darrin drew his daggers, continuing towards her. “We’ll see.”
Kel slipped into a defensive stance, her heart thundering in her chest. A moment of fear was all she was given, and then Darrin was on her, striking like a serpent, quick and lethal. Though her reach was greater, Darrin was faster, and he moved in and out of range with ease, using the narrow confines of the alley to his advantage.
A dagger nicked her cheek, and Kel gasped, resisting the urge to reach for the wound. Darrin struck again, this time going for her neck, but she blocked his attack with her arm, her chainmail deflecting what would have been a lethal blow. He barked a laugh, seeming to sense her desperation, and she feinted at his chest, lowering his guard, then slammed the hilt of her sword into his mouth. Blood spattered onto her, and he cursed, retreating back a step, but before he could recover, Kel lunged forward, thrusting her sword into his belly.
“Oh,” Darrin murmured, his eyes widening in surprise. He slid from her blade, tumbling to the ground in a heap, moaning faintly as he bled out. “Help me. Please.”
“I… I can’t. I won’t,” she said and sheathed her bloody sword, stumbling away from the dying man, numb to his cries.
Kel left the alley and stepped back onto the street, blinking her eyes at the brightness, surprised that barely any time had passed since she’d left. The same people still loitered outside the tavern, and the same weary sun still lingered in the sky, slowly dipping beneath the horizon, giving way to the night.
“Hey, girl, need a friend?” A man asked, his voice slurred and raspy, and Kel fled, rushing blindly through the streets, terror pushing her onward with no care for where she went.
Eventually, a large crowd slowed her, and she glanced around in confusion, only realizing where she was after she saw the raised platform in the distance. Her mad dash had taken her to the city square at sunset, and hundreds of people were packed into the area, clamouring for blood and justice as if the two things were somehow the same. Kel spotted Lord Graven standing atop the dais, resplendent in gleaming plate armour, his handsome face flushed as he spoke to the crowd. The wizard knelt at Lord Graven’s feet, hooded and bound, the gallows looming behind him in dire promise.
A surge of shame burned in Kel’s cheeks, and she wiped at her eyes, certain that this man’s plight was entirely her fault. She was the one who’d chained and captured him, dragging him from his tower on dubious claims of tyranny, then turning away when he’d asked for her help. Instead of honour, Kel had chosen the coward’s path, and now a good man was going to die for nothing, but she’d make sure that he didn’t die alone. Kel would stay and bear witness, etching the wizard’s last moments into her mind. If nothing else, he’d be remembered. She owed him that much, at least.
Kel pushed her way through the press of bodies, searching for a secluded place to stand where she could see the platform. The people began to cheer, and she glanced behind her, watching as the wizard was hauled to his feet and slowly dragged towards the gallows, the crowd’s excitement building to a fevered pitch. Kel bumped into something cold and hard, banging her knee, and she turned forward, gasping when she saw the Benefactors’ strange machine towering above her.
The Purifier hummed with malice, its spinning blades in constant motion, draining life and light and magic, leaving the world less than it was. Kel gazed into the machine, watching the iridescent darkness at its core twist and roil, nausea seething in her belly. Dread filled her, and she nearly fled, only stopping when she noticed that the sphere had been left unguarded. A second chance at happiness beckoned, and Kel gripped the hilt of her sword, a mere breath from drawing it, wrestling with her fear.
“Hey! Get away from there!”
A woman shouted, and Kel panicked, pulling free her sword and ramming into the swirling blades, snarling as she did. The blades bent and twisted, screeching to a halt, and flames ignited within the machine, sending up billowing clouds of noxious smoke.
Something shrieked inside her mind, an inhuman sound laced with hate, and a moment later, an explosion erupted from the platform. Kel could feel the heat from the blast even from where she stood, and its concussive force drove her to the ground, knocking the breath from her lungs. People began to scream, fleeing in every direction, terror overtaking their thirst for blood. A coruscating flash of brilliance lit the city square like a second sun, followed by the crash of thunder rumbling through the streets, deafening and violent.
Kel pushed herself to her feet and grabbed her sword, turning towards the dais. The wizard was free, his tattered robes billowing in the wind, a nimbus of glittering radiance surrounding him. Lord Graven was dead, lying face down in a charred mess, and one of the Benefactors stood across from the wizard, its hood pulled back to reveal maggot-white flesh glistening in the sorcerous light. The creature’s colourless eyes were narrowed, and tentacles writhed atop its head. It held two metal staves, one in either hand, with tendrils of lightning crackling at their tips.
“Bloody hells, girl, you freed him, didn’t you?” Ebberhost growled, and Kel spun around, eyeing the giant man behind her. He lifted his war hammer from his shoulder, gripping it two-handed. “That old man is gonna slaughter the lot of us. Just look at him, mad and wrathful, leakin’ tongues of flame like some cursed demon. Only thing left now is vengeance, eh? Either mine or yours. What’s it gonna be?”
“Mine.”
Ebberhost smiled, charging forward, swinging his weapon in a deadly arc. Kel dove beneath it, coming up in a roll behind him, and her blade lashed out, striking at his face, neck, and stomach in rapid succession. He parried each of her attacks with the haft of his war hammer, but it was clear that he was surprised by her ferocity. Unlike in her fight with Darrin, this time Kel felt no fear or hesitation, only a searing rage.
Errant lightning fell around them as they fought, a storm of power ripping apart the street. Kel’s hair stood on end, and booming thunder rattled her teeth. Every so often, she was buffeted by the force of one of the blasts, but she was winning. She was going to kill this bastard. She—
Ebberhost’s haft stuck between her legs, and she fell to the ground, slamming her chin on the cobblestone and biting her tongue. She rolled instinctively, and his war hammer slammed into the place where she’d been a moment ago, cracking stone and rock. Kel screamed, thrusting upward, slashing her blade across Ebberhost’s groin in a spray of blood.
“Curse you! My berries! Oh gods!” He roared, dropping his weapon as he fell to the ground, clutching at his wound.
Kel laughed and climbed on top of him, pressing her wet blade against his neck. “Am I strong enough for you now?” She roared, her voice hoarse and cracking.
Silence pierced Kel’s bloodlust, and she licked her lips, looking around in confusion. The lightning had ceased, and the battle ended, though the city square had been reduced to a smoking ruin, seemingly devoid of life except for her and Ebberhost.
“You’ve bested him, child, and freed me. It’s time for us to go,” the wizard said, stepping out from a cloud of ash, watching her with weary eyes as he approached.
“Yes, spare me, girl. I’ve suffered enough, eh? Can you heal me, wizard? Please?” Ebberhost moaned.
“Why can’t I kill him? He deserves to die,” Kel said, grinding the edge of her sword deeper into Ebberhost’s neck.
“Perhaps he does. He is cruel and a murderer, but it isn’t our place to deliver judgment. We who are Chosen must mete out death sparingly, lest we become the very monsters the Purity Guard named us. It is easy to kill. It is much harder to choose life, and that is who we are, child. Custodians of life. Protectors. This is the path I offer you now.”
Ever since Kel was a child, people had told her that she was weak, and part of her had always believed that. Yet the only weakness found in the heart of a child stems from the actions of the parents who’ve failed them. She’d always been strong. She knew that now, and killing this man wouldn’t change her past or bring his victims back to life. All it would do was scar her.
“I choose life.”
Kel rose to her feet and cast aside her sword, leaving it forgotten in the charred dirt. The wizard walked up to her, his footsteps soft, his smile inviting, almost shy, as he offered his hand. She inhaled a deep breath, exhaling slowly as she took it, and for the first time in her life, she felt something different than fear and worry. For the first time in her life, Kel felt hope.
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Tyler Bourassa holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology, which he puts to great use while working in the IT department for an insurance company. Currently, he resides in the windswept Saskatchewan prairies his my wife, twin girls, and two cats.
When he’s not reading or writing, he enjoys the occasional quaffing of amber-hued liquor and the slaying of monsters in video games. His fiction has recently appeared in MYTHIC, Hyperion and Theia: Saturnalia, and AHF Magazine.